Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog
Greetings, and welcome to the Friday LinkSwarm…on Friday! Finally, my sloth has paid off! Enjoy a sampler of news stories from the last two weeks.
• Donald Trump is running for president again. Right now I’m inclined to back Ron DeSantis over him.
• Speaking of which, here’s how DeSantis won big culture war victories in Florida.
Governor Ron DeSantis said in his victory speech that, not only did he win the Florida gubernatorial race, but he has also “rewritten the political map.” It is difficult to argue with that assessment. He beat Democrat Charlie Crist by 20 percentage points and flipped Democratic strongholds such as Miami-Dade County.
A particularly potent force in his campaign has been culture-war issues — battles DeSantis won by going on the offensive. “We fight the woke in the legislature,” he said in his speech. “We fight the woke in the schools. We fight the woke in the corporations. We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die.”
As with Trump, DeSantis’s political aggressiveness wins him admirers. The tactics that some conservatives consider morally or philosophically dubious appear only to intensify his popularity.
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• “Mike Lawler Becomes First Republican to Defeat DCCC Chairman in 40 Years.” He defeated Sean Patrick Maloney for New York’s 17th congressional district.
• Republicans will officially be the majority party in the U.S. House of representatives to start the 118th Congress.
• And Nancy Pelosi says she’s stepping down from any leadership role in the next congress. Presumably to spend more time with ice cream and vodka.
• How bad is the FTX scandal? The guy appointed to oversee Enron’s bankruptcy says it’s the worst he’s ever seen.
FTX’s new CEO and liquidator, John Ray III, who also oversaw the unwinding and liquidation of Enron, admits that “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.”
And just in case his shock at FTX’s fraud of epic proportions was not quite clear enough, he adds that “from compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented.”
Snip.
Below we excerpt some of the most notable highlights from the affidavit, which we embed at the bottom of the post and which everyone should read to get a sense of just how massive Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud was.
I have over 40 years of legal and restructuring experience. I have been the Chief Restructuring Officer or Chief Executive Officer in several of the largest corporate failures in history. I have supervised situations involving allegations of criminal activity and malfeasance (Enron). I have supervised situations involving novel financial structures (Enron and Residential Capital) and cross-border asset recovery and maximization (Nortel and Overseas Shipholding). Nearly every situation in which I have been involved has been characterized by defects of some sort in internal controls, regulatory compliance, human resources and systems integrity.
Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here. From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented.
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• Pro-gun candidates did well this election, no matter the party.
• ESG Boomerangs on BlackRock.
BlackRock’s energetic focus on ESG investing is affecting its bottom line. The index fund’s performance is deteriorating, and risks are accumulating. In the face of this situation, UBS Wealth Management recently downgraded ratings for BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) by now listing it as a “Neutral” recommendation rather than a “Buy.” The bank also cut the target stock price to $585 from $700.
• Another one of those things that makes you go “Hmmmm“: “The Funeral Business Is Booming (And Not Because Of COVID)…We’re having to do at one point of time 20 percent more funerals which is unheard of…the third quarter of this year, we did 15% more calls than we did in the third quarter of 2019.”
• Peter Zeihan says that Houston has the brightest outlook of any metro in the world for the next thirty years. (Previously.)
• Two women win settlement against Kroger for getting fired for refusing to wear clothing supporting gay pride.
• “Get Woke, Go Broke: Disney To Lay Off Employees After Billions In Operating Losses.”
• Cudos to the police for catching this guy, despite the fact that he blends so well into crowds.
• “Elizabeth Holmes Sentenced To 11 Years In Prison For Theranos Fraud.”
• How a scammer tried to buy several high end cars with bogus cashier’s checks based on money stolen from other people’s retirement accounts. It doesn’t work out for him.
Much more:
https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=53313
